Amazon Fire Phone Preview

Amazon on Wednesday announced the long-awaited and painfully late to market Fire Phone. Amazon's first smart phone combines a few innovative features like Dynamic Perspective head-tracking with deep (perhaps too deep) tie-ins to Amazon's digital ecosystems and retail store operations.

This one is going to be a struggle, so bear with me.

As a technology enthusiast, events like "Amazon's first smart phone" are of course inherently interesting. And I understand this market well enough to know that Amazon needed to really differentiate the devices in order to make even a dent, let alone really compete with the market leaders. And I know, further, that the deeply innovative Windows Phone platform, despite many advantages over Android and iOS, has barely made a dent.

So I look at what Amazon did announce with that perspective. And while there are certainly interesting bits, ... eh. I just don't see anything truly exciting there. I don't feel that Amazon has established a fourth mobile platform, at least not one that matters. And I don't think that Fire Phone is differentiated enough—in a positive way that benefits actual users—to matter at all.

My view is admittedly colored. As I wrote just yesterday in Kobo Books for Windows Phone 8.x (and Windows 8.x), and explained more thoroughly in The Sad State of Amazon Apps on Windows late last year, Amazon has squandered what I used to view as its most compelling advantage in the digital world: It no longer treats the physical end-points (i.e. devices) to its digital media ecosystem equally. That is, there is no such thing as a "Kindle experience" or whatever. Amazon doesn't treat its apps on different platforms equally. And on Windows/Windows Phone in particular, the firm just doesn't give a shit: The apps that do exist (Kindle, Audible) are not as feature-complete as the same apps on other platforms and are rarely if ever updated. Many more apps (Instant Video, Amazon Music, etc.) never even make it to Windows/Windows Phone.

(By "Windows" I mean Modern Windows, not Windows desktop. It's 2014.)

A few years ago, Jeff Bezos was talking about how Amazon didn't make money selling devices, it made money when people used devices. And the theory was that Amazon, alone of the big digital platform makers, could still win when you buy some other company's device. Because of the gap in quality or availability of Amazon's apps and services across rival platforms, however, that theory has been effectively denounced. Amazon, as it turns out, says one thing and means another. And yes, it does want you to buy its devices, not rival devices.

And that would be fine, if Amazon's devices had any compelling value. They used to. A long time user and fan of the Kindle platform, for example, I positively reviewed every single device the firm sold ... until last year's Kindle Fire HDX. But that time, Amazon's insular, Amazon.com-focused user interfaces had gotten to me. It's lack of openness, the entire point of Android, usurped in order to keep users locked into Amazon's ecosystems instead. By the time the HDX shipped, Amazon's devices weren't just not a good value compared to more expensive Apple devices, they weren't even good values compared to similarly priced tablets like the Google Nexus 7, which is vastly superior. (And can run Amazon's apps if that's what you want.) Amazon devices went from being a good value to be just a tunnel into their store.

And that's what the Fire Phone is. It's not a phone. It's a portable doorway into Amazon.com. And I'm sorry, but that is not OK.

It's not OK because continually "buying stuff," or at the least being confronted by a sales pitch, as you are when you view items in the device's Fire OS and it shows you related items in the store, is not any human being's primary activity. Technology can be used for good or evil, and while saving a buck is obvious OK in isolation, being constantly confronted with offers, money-saving or not, is not. Yes, you could use a Fire Phone to record some of life's most wonderful moments on what appears to be a decent camera. Or you could just use some other device that isn't constantly trying to sell you something while you're doing so.

Looking at the device (finally, I know, I know), we see a mix of mid-level and high-end hardware and a mix of innovative and me-too features. Worse, we see nothing special at all around pricing, which quite frankly is the biggest disappointment. Here are the salient points.

Hardware specs. The Fire Phone provides a mid-level, 2.2 GHz quad-core Snapdragon 800 processor with an Adreno 330 graphics processor, 2 GB of RAM and 32 GB or 64 GB of storage, depending on the model. That storage is not upgradeable with microSD.

Screen. The Fire Phone's display is also mid-level, offering a resolution of 720 x 1280 (720p) in its 4.7-inch screen. The display is LCD, and not a superior IPS/OLED-type design.

Cameras. The back-facing camera looks good on paper, offering 13 megapixels of resolution, multi-frame HDR, auto focus, optical image stabilization, f/2.0 5-element wide aperture lens, and an LED flash. The front-facing camera is 2.1 megapixels. Amazon compared the rear camera favorably to the Samsung Galaxy S5 and iPhone 5S, both of which are excellent, but it ignored the Lumia 1020, 1520 and Icon/930, each of which offers a superior camera. The good news? Every photo you take is backed up to Amazon's Cloud Drive for free. Where they will never be heard from again, as no one uses Cloud Drive. But at least they're backed up.

Fire OS 3.5. Amazon provides an AOSP-based OS called Fire OS which has its pros and cons. On the con side is its "content-forward" user experience, which is all about pushing you to buy more stuff while you navigate your own content.

Amazon AppStore for Android. The device's store, with about 200,000 apps, is a far cry from the ~1 million offered by Google Play, which you cannot use on this device. Even Windows Phone has more apps. And if you need Microsoft apps, you're out of luck: They're on real Android, but only a handful of lesser apps are available on Amazon's devices. The good news? Fire Phone comes with 1,000 Amazon Coins (a $10 value) for apps, games, and in-app purchases.

Dynamic Perspective. This feature looks legitimately cool and is actually innovative. It lets you tilt the phone or move your head to show 3D-like perspective changes on the phone's screen. It's not clear how pervasive these experiences are—I could see some people getting seasick from the effect—but Amazon demonstrated it in the lock screen, in immersive apps and games, and throughout the OS UIs.

Firefly. This controversial features turns your phone into a front-end for Amazon's online store. When you're out in the world—say at a Best Buy or some other foolishly old-school retailer that now only acts as a showroom for Amazon—you can use the phone to identify a real-world product and then purchase it through Amazon. How important is this feature to Fire Phone? There' a dedicated hardware button. This is the firm that invented One Click, after all.

Mayday. Aimed at the unwashed masses, this feature gets you in touch with a real human being so you can troubleshoot anything that's wrong with your phone. And yes, there's a dedicated hardware button for Mayday on the phone too. Because people who use Amazon hardware are apparently that much in need of help.

Prime. I assume you're familiar with Amazon's Prime service, a $99-per-year subscription that provides "free" two-day shipping on many items in the Amazon.com physical products store, plus a few digital perks like access to Instant Prime Videos (a Netflix rip-off) and Prime Music (a Pandora/Spotify/iTunes Radio knock-off). If you buy a Fire Phone, you get one year of Prime for free. (Existing subscribers get a one-year extension for free.)

Amazon ecosystems. Obviously, the Fire Phone provides integrated access to Amazon's digital media ecosystems, including Kindle e-books, Amazon Music, Instant Video, and Audible audiobooks. And it supports the full feature set of each, unlike these services on many devices. That means X-Ray in Instant Video, Whispersync between Kindle and Audible, second screen support, and Kindle periodical support. You only get the full experience on Amazon devices now.

In the box. The device comes with a USB 2.0-based wall charger (no longer provided with Amazon's tablets and e-book readers) and a pair of tangle-free headphones.

Accessories. There wasn't much on accessories, but Amazon will eventually sell at least colored cases. You cannot preorder them yet, however.

Branding. It's worth noting that this is the first Amazon mobile device to not carry the Kindle moniker. Instead, it uses the Fire branding that first appeared on the Kindle Fire tablets.

Pricing. This is where it all falls apart. Fire Phone costs $199.00 for a 32 GB version with a two-year contract from AT&T, or $299.00 for the 64 GB version. If you want it unsubsidized—but still locked to AT&T—it costs a whopping $650/750.

Wireless carrier. Just in case it's not obvious, you can only get the Fire Phone on AT&T Wireless. In the United States only.

Availability. Fire Phone can be preordered now. The device will be released in about a month, on July 25, 2014.

I'm not sure if I'll be reviewing this device. I've asked Amazon.com for a review loaner, but the firm has ignored my requests in the past, and given my recent disenchantment with their direction, this one is an open question all around. We'll see what happens.

Phone market is getting saturated. There is nothing they can do with phone and make people wow because there is really nothing else to put there. Yes, phone can get faster hardware, better camera, more storage some other sensors but that's about it. Perhaps new type of screens could make some difference. Right now it is software which drives Phone sales and Microsoft lacks there which translates to joke market share Windows Phone has.

And i do have Windows Phone since version 7 starting with LG model and now on Lumia 920 and it is the worst possible platform i had from app point of view. Only apps i run are default and some bing apps...pretty much everything is pile of shit. Windows Phone 8.1 introduced a lot of instability. My phone crashes like there is no tomorrow, usually on lock screen or simply crashes and reboots with no reason. Could be just phone but i doubt it...what to expect from amateurs?

My experience couldn't be more different. While I've been on WP for sometime now starting with my HTC HD 7, I've now got a 920 running WP8.1. WP has always been super stable for me and I can probably count on one hand the number of reboots or freezes I've had in the last two years of so. That's a very different experience than what I had with Froyo on a Samsung.

As far as WP's app market. There's no denying that it's third, that is clear. While I don't like to see companies which only list apps for iOS and Android, that's just the way it is at this point. I'd prefer to have a WP app for REI and my creditcard, with the exception of that I have all the first party apps that I really care about.

Even though I love my Kindle Paperwhite, I'm still amazed that Amazon does as well with its Fire tablets as they seem to do. After all, many of your complaints about the Fire phone could also apply to their tablets.

I think the Fire phone may very well appeal to people who don't have any brand loyalty to their phones, who currently have mid-level Android phones, and who trust and use other Amazon services. This phone obviously isn't designed for techies or people who are heavily invested in one mobile operating system or the other.

Also, Amazon has a history of improving their hardware with each succeeding generation, so stay tuned to see what they do next.

With the Kindle tablet range a) it was cheap and cheerful and b) its restrictions to Amazon kind of made more sense, since a tablet that size is all about consuming content. The lack of proper access to Office or similar apps was irrelevant, you didn't want it to do that.

But a phone is about much more than consumption, its the main mobile communication & productivity device for most people, in my experience anyway. I don't see this device offering much differentiation in that particular respect.

And the price? Daft. Why would I pay a premium price for this device? At least if it were cheap and cheerful it would be an option for people who weren't really into smartphones but wanted to dip their toes in. That was the cornerstone of the Kindle tablets' success. I can get a great Windows phone or a Nexus 5 for probably half the price. And it wont try and sell me stuff.

I thought for sure that Amazon's phone would have all the problems discussed in the article, but be cheaper than other phones, maybe available off contract. How disappointing. I'll stick with my Lumia, thanks.

I have and my family still intermittently uses the first 4 Kindles made. I continue to buy eBooks and audio books from Amazon but mostly access them on my Windows desktops, Laptops, Surface and/or Windowsphone. I looked but passed on the subsequent Kindles that tried to be more than dedicated readers. If they were now more than just an ereader, that distracted and detracted from what they formerly did best and they were less than what their competitors offered as a tablet.

Since then I've continued to buy Amazon content on non-Amazon devices despite my considerable irritation over the studied or careless lousiness of the Amazon apps.

Does Amazon still want my business, including my Prime membership and my frequent non-device online purchases? I am much more likely to seek out an online shopping competitor than I am likely to abandon Windows for Amaandroid devices, if they continue to game their services to make a choice.

Don't always agree with you Paul, but I 100% agree with this assessment. It's quite the opposite of an earth shattering announcement, and in some respects leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

I use Amazon regularly as their prime service and prices are typically excellent, but I'm soured to some of their business practices as of late. I'm not really impressed with Bezo's almost maniacal ambition to not only have a monopoly on e-commerce but a monopoly on the gateways to their stuff. It strikes me as far more nefarious than anything Google/Apple/Microsoft has done in the last decade.

And to add insult to injury, this phone doesn't compete in specs, software support or price. Has a nifty Firefly feature that should have just been released as a third party app to other phones. Just a collective yawn I suppose.

I have been gradually getting a dislike for Amazon and this just cements it. There is no openness in their way of doing business. They want you all to themselves even at the expense of the brick and mortar.
I don't want to see brick and mortar die but opening promoting the fact that this phone makes it easier to "showroom" brick and mortar will really kill these businesses. Maybe it is my age, but I enjoy going in the store and touching the items and looking at the boxes. I also tend to do a lot of research on-line but only end buying on-line if stores don't have the product I want. Buying at Amazon more and more looks like it doesn't nothing but hurt the local economy.

Some may question Amazon selling its own devices, but stores have done it for years with name brand products. I think the main problem here is they are also using these devices to try to lock in buyers.
It erases competition and frankly I don't want to do business a company so adverse to being competitive.

"And on Windows/Windows Phone in particular, the firm just doesn't give a shit: The apps that do exist (Kindle, Audible) are not as feature-complete as the same apps on other platforms and are rarely if ever updated. Many more apps (Instant Video, Amazon Music, etc.) never even make it to Windows/Windows Phone.

For this you can probably lay blame at the feet of MS and its mobile "strategy." Although WP has made some right moves recently (free OS), which has led to new vendors coming on board, MS seems to be going in the opposite direction with tablets. Yes, OEMs have been bringing more of these to market, but exclusively of the legacy W8+ variety (see the parenthetical remark quoted from the article, above). At the same time, it appears to be actively disparaging its mobile platform, Windows RT, most recently by pulling the plug on what seemed a very desirable Surface Mini in favour of a legacy machine, the Pro 3, which, at its sky high price, isn't likely to see significant market share. Want to get Amazon's attention? Then try (please) going after some volume in the tablet space.

I agree, this phone is disappointing. I will be watching its sales numbers though because if it ends up anywhere even close to the sales numbers of Windows phone it will be game over for MS. If this late to market turkey even approaches Windows phone market share it will be time for MS to admit defeat...

The first time I saw an example of "Dynamic Perspective" in a 3D game was in Diablo 2, better than a decade ago...;) While it's certainly true that cell phones in general all rehash computer technology that was state-of-the-art ten to fifteen years ago in some fashion, I find this to be a prime example...! I should say, too, that Diablo 2 is a dish best served with "Dynamic Perspective" turned off...! What a wonky "feature," but I suppose the general public will buy just about anything if it's repackaged as "new and exciting!" (DP never went anywhere in 3d gaming because it was/is such an obvious kludge.)

I have to also admit that I'm prejudiced and think that all cell phones should be dumb with smart owners; instead of the status-quo of smart phones having mostly dumb owners...;)

I was hopeful that an Amazon phone entry would be disruptive. Having a robust ecosystem would be a big competitive advantage over manufacturers like Samsung and HTC that have to piggyback off of Google's ecosystem. But, the decision to go with their AOSP-based FireOS instead of real Android is questionable at best and downright stubborn at worst. I wish I could have sat in their internal Fire Phone meetings just to hear what possible responses there could have been to "Sooo it won't run apps from the Play Store?" questions.

As Paul said, the company has always been more about the prolific distribution of its services than it is about distributing its own devices--and wisely so in my opinion. While I could somewhat justify the AOSP decision for its media tablet, the company's insistence on pursing this strategy for a phone is almost mind-boggling...to the point where I feel like I must be missing something. Instead of basically telling Google and Apple that you're now directly competing with them, why not just make FireOS an Android skin, tack on your services with some nice hardware tie-ins, and call it a day? Are they afraid Google will see their ecosystem as too much of a threat and somehow shut them out? Or, is there growing pressure for them to be profitable, and selling its own, higher-margin devices will help them do so? I just don't get it.

As a fan and frequent user of Amazon services, I hope the company isn't losing its way.

First (and a nit) this is not the first Amazon device not to use Kindle branding -- that was the "Fire TV".

Perhaps the biggest problem with this "device" is calling it a "phone". Jeff Bezos, in an interview w the NYT, commented that he hardly ever uses his phone to make calls.

As you commented this is a shopping platform (though not necessarily just for Amazon as the firefly SDK is open and presumably other retailers could write apps to use Firefly). But it's also a perhaps useful device using firefly to just remember things you see in the real world. And from my own experience, shopping (especially product search/comparisons/pricing) is time consuming -- so anything that can make that process more efficient and less time intensive will definitely get a look from me.

This is about changing the nature of shopping and retail going forward more than anything else. Bezos has been a game changer here before -- it'll be interesting to see how this plays out.

As to strategy: I'm sure the main objective here is to capture new Prime subscribers (who reputedly spend lots more on Amazon than non-Prime subscribers), and to increase engagement with existing Prime subscribers. Looking at this from the point of view of the existing smartphone market probably misses the point -- I don't think Bezos expects to make a big splash with existing smartphone users right out of the box. I suspect this is (as many have observed in the past) a long term play. This is no Kin phone -- Bezos has the stones to stay the course.

As to MS support: you are right on here. It's not just with MS apps though -- in a lot of areas (like the functionality on their "Manage Your Content" pages) they leave a lot to be desired. Some Amazon CS reps (as reported on customer forums) have been telling customers that Amazon is working with MS devs to bring W8.1 and Wph8.1 functionality to fruition. No details as to features/timelines.

As to the UI: I have a Windows Phone (Lumia 920) and I love it -- I also have 2 Kindle Fires. The UI's on both are quite different from each other, but each is easy to use. I don't really see any major learning curve issues with Fire OS 3.5.

As to pricing: I suspect that was driven more by ATT's desires to "fair trade" their phones (ATT sets prices not other retailers and discounting is not allowed). Apple "fair trades" all their devices. Retailers get around the no discounting prohibition by bundling the device with a gift card. Amazon's free 1 year Prime subscription/extension is in effect a $100 discount -- aimed at Prime -- which to come round full circle IMO is the main reason for this device to exist.

Paul, don't forget about the reseller relationship Amazon has with carriers (Bestbuy Mobile and Amazon Wireless are the only two nationwide resellers standing after Simplicity and Let's Talk shutdown).

Amazon can 'purchase' the Fire phones at cost rather than stocking them from AT&T wholesale, and still collect their commission on 2 yr contract sales when Fire phones are purchased off the Amazon website. Therefore, they have huge margins to price it down during promotions, Xmas, Thanksgiving, etc. $199 is not here to stay.

If the Fire phone sales can drive traffic to Amazon Wireless that's even better. Fire 16gb and 32gb are already 1st and 2nd bestsellers on Amazon contract phones list.

As far as the Fire phone is concerned I am simply not impressed. I expect sales to be muted if not poor. I do not see that its dynamic perspective will overcome the negatives of not having the Play store and having adds shoved down one's throat.

Paul, i often agree with your views you present on your blog and the windows weekly podcast but in this case i have an a bit different view on many of the points =)
Where i agree is that Amazon is going a bit overboard with showing you too many recommendations to buy more stuff at every corner in the OS and sure, it would be great if they released good versions of their apps/services on other platforms again which are on par with what they release on their (kindle)fire devices.

But where i disagree with you (and obviously most of the other commenters) is the overall rating on the phone.
I think Amazon showed something very promising there and the only two major downsides (which in fact could and likely will have quite a negative impact on sales) i see at first glance are AT&T exclusive and high price both subsidised and even more when unsubsidised.
But on those i'm pretty sure Amazon will change those two in not too distant future, at latest with the second iteration in 10-12 months.

While as experienced person regarding tech stuff the mayday button/service wouldn't be a selling point to me for me personally either, i do think that it is indeed a big selling point for when one buys a device for someone less experienced with this tech stuff.
Before this i would have recommended an Android Smartphone to experienced people and an iPhone for people less experienced with tech/computery stuff.
iOS is just more intuitive to use at first glance, no debate about it.
But now, i'd rather buy this for a grandma or similar, cause then she can get insta help on everything.
So to me it kinda takes away the market some from iOS on the end of being more intuitive and quick to get into stuff.
On the other end Android cuts into the iOS device unit sales percentage numbers on the higher end market of more sophisticated features/devices wanting people or just ones who want more device form factors or less walled garden etc.
Then surface pro got a lot better with pro 3 so it starts to get to a level where i'd recommend it for experienced users over an Android tablet.
So to me Apple is loosing most from both user segments ends there =)
Let's see, maybe they have some cool stuff to show in the fall.

Back to the fire phone:
To me the strongest feature is the one button firefly functionality. Now it is talked down by many as being nothing else than shopping focussed, but to me it looked like it is a general "recognise what's in front of the lens" functionality (like google goggles but even better since reachable with one hardware button all the time) where one of the action options is buy but there are also others like Wikipedia Info, recognize text and phone numbers etc and even an api where other app developers could offer other actions.

If the other options besides buy are well working and the buy option would also allow me other buying options than Amazon, yeah, that's exactly what i want and i think lots of other people would want, too.
I'd actually go so far and say if this works well most smartphone owners will want something like that very soon.
Why not have a single button that instantly recognises what's in front of the lens for you?
One step closer to the tricorder, yes, please =)

Now on the main firefly "downside" noted, using it for showrooming: again, it looks like and i hope the other action options after recognizing something are well working and worthy, too, so just talking about the side now whether its bad or not to use it for showrooming:
Honestly, i think its not at all.
That's the open market for you.
I'd even go further and say: In most cases, reasonable people would use it only in shops which deserve to be used as showrooms and not be bought from.
How i come to that (initially maybe harsh sounding) conclusion?
Think about it =) When you're in a small mom and pop shop, they'd have less variety of products, so not ideal for showrooming firefly usage anyway and at the same time usually they'd have friendly service, maybe even someone talking with you who acts warm and human and maybe even knows you personally.
You wouldn't grab your phone and showroom everything to buy it on Amazon in front of the guy you like who acts friendly to you.
(Other than to maybe jokingly tell him about what you do at best buy etc).

But in a large store chain, if you feel like its a big corporation with employees who couldn't care less and usually also prices which are not great, well, you'd be more likely to pick out your phone and do some showrooming.

The big store chains have it in their own hands, people already come to their stores if they are showrooming there, so its up to the store chain to convince the buyer that his service and prices are better than Amazon.
It does speak bounds about how bad the prices and/or service of a real life store must be when a person who is interested in buying something already made the effort to come to his store and then instead of buying it there to have it right away still bought it in delivery method where the thing arrives later.

As far as i can tell the firefly app would even allow a company like best buy to write their own app which then offered an action option, too.
So, just in theory, Best buy could then offer the guy showrroming using firefly in his store a better deal in firefly or highlight the benefits of buying it in his store instead of on Amazon.

Overall i don't think showrroming weeds out the Mom & Pop stores more, cause the big chains do that. Showrroming more weeds out the big chains if they don't have good enough prices and/or good enough service.

From my own experience, i'm not in the US but we have similar store chains here as in the US of course and each time i was in one of them in the last few years, their service was non existent or horrible, the employees acted and hence felt like it was the place they least liked to be at in the world and hence they were not particularly helpful or friendly and the prices were considerably worse than when shopping online.
So yeah, as much as they probably didn't feel sorry for kicking to the side many Mom & Pop shops, i don't feel sorry for them getting kicked to the side if they don't lower their prices or don't improve their customer service.

Its nice to be able to look at products in real life in a store but if the selection is bad, the pricing high and the customer service not existent or generally bad, yeah, well, of course its not gonna be around forever anymore.

A good example for where still a store chain and the opposite is the case are Apple stores. One may make jokes about their Aura and Geniuses etc, but i can go there and get the feeling i'm treated better than just being a wallet to them. It also helps that their prices are usually not way worse than when i buy the same thing online (which of course is easier for Apple to control, but besides the point =) ).

I think the firefly button and functionality, which again, i hope will make it onto every smartphone soon, goes in all directions.
Someone else will of course write hookins or an own app which then can offer better deals than Amazon for the buying stuff or other cool recognising features people want, so then Amazon has to ramp it up again, too.

But yeah, as bottomline, i think Amazon had quite a strong showing the head tracking dynamic perspective stuff seems gimmicky but also cool enough that i'd probably like to have it going forward, too, would have to try that for longer to say for sure. Mayday is great for less experienced users. Firefly will be used a lot by lots of people i think and if other manufacturers are clever be implemented by them right away, too.
They have to address the carrier exclusivity and pricing, but yeah, i wouldn't be surprised if they sell a few million of these with the current model and then way more millions once they have it not exclusive to one carrier anymore, sell it at lower price and worldwide.
I think another player in the market is good for us and to me it looks like Amazon showed some interesting things there.
Not sure if i'd already buy iteration 1 if i wasn't a tech enthusiast, but i'm sure it can be a very appealing device to lots of people and i sure want to see some of these shown things on all devices going forward.

I'd imagine if Apple would make something like the firefly button/functionality it would be less privacy invasive, if Google made it it would be more privacy invasive but in return offer even more handy functionality.